A Yin-Yang Color Palette Transforms A Former Garage In Chicago

What happens when an entrepreneur and father of two teens decides to transform what was once a garage with dirt “floors” and few windows into a sophisticated, inviting home? He looks no further than past collaborators Steve Somogyi and Filip Malyszko to handle the interior design.

“We’re sort of kindred spirits, and I have tremendous faith in them,” he confides, noting they had become friends over the years. “I told them I wanted this place to be fucking fabulous.”

By the time the designers started brainstorming, their client had already collaborated with an architect to add a peaked skylight that floods the interior with natural light and a smaller, second-floor addition with a spacious deck.

The modifications made him reconsider his initial desire for an industrial vibe. “The natural light changed the way it felt and allowed for a more tailored aesthetic while maintaining its DNA,” he explains.

With that in mind, the designers pitched an uber-modern interior design with heated concrete flooring finished in a warm gray tone and a daring black-and-white color palette.

While the bold design appealed to their sophisticated and adventurous client straightaway, it posed a challenge to the designers. “How do you create warmth when the space is literally a huge box with concrete floors?” Malyszko asks.

Lighting plays a key role. The initial renovation created a sleek, illuminated reveal around the entire perimeter, highlighting their client’s extensive art collection and creating an atmospheric glow. Malyszko and Somogyi supplemented the illumination with led-lined solar tubes, which double as spotlights when the sun sets.

A textural wall covering likewise adds a sense of coziness to the entry foyer and open great room, where a black patchwork rug anchors two distinct sitting areas, one defined by a low-slung sectional sofa covered in a curly white shearling – a favorite spot for the client and his children to often curl up and watch movies. “The upholstery is overstuffed, so they can crash and feel comfortable,” Somogyi contends.

Behind the sectional, a sprawling, sinuous, organic wire wall sculpture by Eric Gushee also softens the linear architecture, albeit in dramatic fashion. Commissioned specifically for the space, it’s “the heart of the home,” the client claims. “The space feels naked without it.” A second, smaller-scale sculpture by Gushee has the same effect in the second-floor seating area.

While black plays a supporting role in the living area, it takes center stage in the open kitchen, which is appointed in dark custom cabinetry with brass hardware, honed Absolute Black granite countertops and an antique mirror backsplash that “adds an air of mystery,” Malyszko says. “It looks like it’s gone through a battle.”

Black also reigns in the upper-level primary bedroom, where the lack of color characterizes not only the walls but also the upholstered headboard, rug, draperies and accent furnishings. That their client would approve such a daring color scheme still impresses the designers. “Very few people would agree to this palette, but he went for it,” Malyszko states. “It feels super sexy.”

While the project was not the norm for the designers, who have a penchant for colorful interiors, they are thrilled with the way it turned out. “It’s that duality, the yin and yang,” Somogyi says of the space. “That contrast is what makes it feel so fresh.” The client is equally overjoyed with the result, noting that while the home is located on a bustling city street, the interior is a quiet and serene respite.

Perhaps more importantly for the client, his children love the space. Indeed, he often arrives home to find them and their friends lounging on the sofa, drinks in hand and shoes propped up on the light upholstery. Not that he minds. “This space is meant to become dirty, scratched and patinaed,” he says. “The people and interactions are what make it feel joyful.”

Photography by Aimée Mazzenga.

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